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Amazon Warehouse Envoys Rally To Tweet Upbeat Comments About Working Conditions (seattletimes.com)

Amazon has been criticized for years by activists and labor unions for working conditions in its warehouses. So it caught the eye of a Seattle Times journalist when he saw several people, all of which created account recently, tweet positive things about their work experience at Amazon's warehouse. The report says: A group of more than a dozen Amazon Twitter users in the last two weeks started responding to critics of the company on the social media site, sharing upbeat tales of their working conditions and pay at Amazon's distribution network. Identified by first names and "Amazon FC Ambassador," they each opened a Twitter account this month, are unfailingly polite, and pepper emojis into conversations about the generosity of their benefits packages and job satisfaction at Amazon's fulfillment centers, the company's term for its sprawling warehouses.

[...] Amazon's Twitter legion, though small, appears to represent a new front in the company's effort to portray itself as a generous employer. The company has been criticized for years by activists and labor unions for working conditions in its warehouses, with media reports finding the company failed to provide air conditioning at some facilities during the summer, and set work quotas that could exceed employees' ability to keep up.

18 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Twitter astroturfing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A new low for Amazon.

    1. Re:Twitter astroturfing by Miser · · Score: 2

      I don't know why you're getting modded down, I was sure smelling that good old astroturf when reading the article.

      Most folks will see right through this, hopefully.

  2. My Bro used to get this by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Informative

    bosses would make him AstroTurf. When your Boss asks you don't argue. They'll usually check that you did it. Heck, these days with cell phones they can watch you do it right then and there.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:My Bro used to get this by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hello, I am employed by amazon to handle
      Express order fullfillment.
      Let me assure you that I feel no
      Pressure at all to write this.
      My time here has been full of happy
      Experiences.

  3. Re:Stop the collectivist bullshit by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

    Whether those people are happy or unhappy working there, the only things that might legitimately concern those of us without AMZN-stock, is: "are they there voluntarily?"

    The answer is "Sort of...they don't have any inherited or accumulated wealth, so they need jobs to survive. The closest thing to a legal alternative is to squat on land in the woods and hope they don't get caught, like the Unabomber."

    None of this is any of our business.

    Until you can no longer legally quit your job for some reason, your not leaving is proof, the job-conditions are Ok.

    Nothing to see here, move along.

    Sure thing.

    JUST KIDDING! We have freedom of speech and association! BWAHAHAHA you can't stop us from helping our fellow humans! XD

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  4. Re:What if ... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If so, then rather than universally complaining about how demanding and shitty the jobs are, people who have worked there would probably just keep relatively quiet about their cushy jobs, like the workers at "defense" contractors.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  5. In Soviet Russia... by macker · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...Fulfillment Centers up beat *YOU* until you are fully filled up!

    --
    (T)he (O)ld (M)an
  6. Re:Stop the collectivist bullshit by Sumus+Semper+Una · · Score: 2

    None of this is any of our business. Whether those people are happy or unhappy working there, the only things that might legitimately concern those of us without AMZN-stock, is: "are they there voluntarily?"

    Until you can no longer legally quit your job for some reason, your not leaving is proof, the job-conditions are Ok.

    Nothing to see here, move along.

    Yeah. Stop complaining about your missing fingers and limbs, you socialist bastards. If you don't like the fact that the machine in the factory has no safety features and regularly maims the workers you are free to work somewhere else.

    That IS what you were trying to say, right?

  7. I know people who work in one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They don't care. It's a job that has few requirements. Pampered techbros are always so shocked to see how the other half lives. Conditions in Amazon "fulfillment centers" or whatever are pretty much the same as any other warehouse in the region, maybe a little better even since they use ton of robots to make the work easier. I don't know who these people that are constantly trying to smear Amazon are, but it could be Waltons, could be Oracle, or could be the NY Times. When you're that successful in that many industries, you get a lot of people trying to take you down.

  8. Re:Stop the collectivist bullshit by barc0001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh bullshit. If there were better jobs available to these workers you think they'd be there? People who are scraping by don't have the luxury of easy job mobility, so stop with the "they like it if they work there" crap.

    Companies are forcing shitty work conditions on people and paying the less and less. This is a problem that DOES affect all of society, ESPECIALLY when there are thousands of these Amazon workers who are being paid so shittily that they're on food stamps:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/thousands-of-amazon-workers-receive-food-stamps-and-bernie-sanders-wants-amazon-to-pay-up/ar-BBMnmJC

    So you know what? That DOES make it everyone's business because public tax dollars are going to subsidize corporate profits. Or another way to state it: Corporate Welfare. For one of the richest companies on the face of the Earth.

  9. Happy Amazon Worker's Review by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Funny

    Happiness is the essence of working at an Amazon warehouse.
    Everywhere I look, I see smiling faces and cheerful conversation.
    Lovely work environment overall, great people all around.
    Please consider an Amazon warehouse for your next job!

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    1. Re:Happy Amazon Worker's Review by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      An Amazon haiku:

      Hours and pay are great
      Tell the world how great it is
      Or you'll be replaced

  10. Re:Stop the collectivist bullshit by larryjoe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    None of this is any of our business. Whether those people are happy or unhappy working there, the only things that might legitimately concern those of us without AMZN-stock, is: "are they there voluntarily?"

    Until you can no longer legally quit your job for some reason, your not leaving is proof, the job-conditions are Ok.

    Nothing to see here, move along.

    The private lives of the employees are their own personal lives. Amazon is a private company and can make its own decisions. However, how Amazon operates affects the lives of the people in the surrounding communities. If Amazon employees are underpaid, they place greater burdens on government programs, much as Walmart workers have, with resulting impacts on tax rates and societal impacts on communities, families, schools, etc. If Amazon employees are injured on the job without adequate health coverage, then the government-run health and workers compensation programs will be burdened, again with associated tax and societal impacts. If Amazon pays its employees less than they would have received from other jobs, then the local tax base decreases.

    This is not to say that government should dictate to Amazon how to operate their business. However, because Amazon's way of doing business significantly impacts the community, the community should be able to voice their concerns.

  11. Re:Stop the collectivist bullshit by mi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If there were better jobs available to these workers you think they'd be there?

    No one would be, where they are, if a better alternative were available. No one.

    People who are scraping by

    The US is both a free and a fabulously rich country. The stuff of dreams of immigrants world-wide, who come here — legally and otherwise — and manage to not only earn a living, but to also support extended families back home. Whoever is born and raised in the US — without the immigrants' handicaps — has only himself to blame for being unable to afford whatever he wishes to afford by adulthood.

    public tax dollars are going to subsidize corporate profits

    More collectivist bullshit...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  12. Re:Stop the collectivist bullshit by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No. The closest thing to a legal alternative is to find another employer — one who'd be happy to retain the services if the hard-working and dedicated employee, treated so unfairly and harshly by Amazon.

    Why, they can pay you the same and win you over just by treating you better!

    Funny how that doesn't really happen though - new, better jobs don't magically spring into being to take in refugees from shitty jobs at the bottom of the employment pyramid. Instead all the employers settle on paying minimum wage or close to it, and treating workers about as awfully as they can legally get away with! Isn't that weird? So weird.

    Amazon warehouses have been in operation for years now. Maybe you can help these workers by hanging out at one during lunch break and handing out printed contact info for these freely-available better jobs to the workers as they sprint past.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  13. I know a few people who work for Amazon by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 3, Informative

    I know a few people who work for Amazon in one of their warehouses. Every one of them loves working for Amazon. They believe that they get rewarded for working hard.

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  14. Re:Stop the collectivist bullshit by froggyjojodaddy · · Score: 2

    Oh man, I'm not sure if you really feel that way, are just having a bad day, or trolling

    Just because someone chooses to work somewhere that has poor working conditions, doesn't mean it shouldn't concern "us". People shouldn't be peeing in water bottles because if they go to the bathroom, they'll lose 'productivity' hours and get fired. That shouldn't be a thing.

    I think you're trolling though, for real.

  15. Bezos = China? by alternative_right · · Score: 2

    Amazon's Twitter legion, though small, appears to represent a new front in the company's effort to portray itself as a generous employer.

    Sounds like the kind of thing the Maoist Chinese or Stalinist USSR would do.

    "No, comrade, there is much borscht and vodka, and all is good! Do not trouble yourself with lies of capitalist plutocrat pig-dog lackeys who claim Glorious People's Republic is somehow inferior."